Lawyer-bashing Doesn`t Help System

CHICAGO — Karen Winfield`s calumniations about lawyers (``Judicial reform begins with attorneys,`` Feb. 16) cannot go unanswered. Such false charges are not surprising from an organization that until recently was called ``Help Abolish Legal Tyranny,`` thus the acronym HALT.

Ms. Winfield takes aim at about every aspect of our legal system, but misses the target widely. She complains that ``law students are taught to set values aside in order to argue both sides of any case.`` Unless she is advocating the overthrow of our Constitution, she must have played hooky during 7th grade civics. We have an adversarial system of justice in which each side is entitled to have a lawyer to advocate its point of view.

Next, she contends that ``with no honest legal work to perform but with bills to pay, lawyers must find other work or they must cheat.`` With that stroke of the pen she has condemned the entire legal profession. But for free speech under the 1st Amendment, Ms. Winfield would find herself the loser in a class action brought by the legal profession, because she has accused every lawyer of unethical conduct.

She also alleges that lawyers cheat on their time, double the actual cost of out-of-pocket disbursements, such as telephone charges, and charge attorneys` fees for secretarial and paralegal work. This is patently improper conduct by a lawyer. If she can support any of these allegations about lawyers in Illinois, there is a simple route to discipline the guilty lawyers-report the misconduct to the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission. The commission must initiate an investigation. Of course, the complainant must be able to provide the commission with facts, not speculation, or the charges will be dropped.

However, Ms. Winfield thinks that remedial action for the legal system should begin with the commission. Just because Ms. Winfield and her organization think that most lawyers are public enemies or crooks, or both, does not make that so. Likewise, because the commission only disciplines a very small percent of lawyers, that does not mean that it is ineffectual.

Indeed, the public is not reluctant to report alleged lawyer wrongdoing. On the contrary, people like Ms. Winfield have made lawyer-bashing a sport. Moreover, she has not presented any facts to substantiate her sweeping allegations. In reality, most lawyers are performing their important function in our society in an honest and ethical manner.

What HALT and similar antilawyer groups can do to help the public and the legal profession is simple. Stop the ridiculous broadside attacks based on factoids. Focus on specific instances of lawyer misconduct and concrete solutions to the perceived problems of our legal system.

If HALT takes such a tack it will quickly realize that we lawyers want to rid our profession of bad lawyers because they undermine the reputation of those of us who take pride in our profession. Although change is slow in coming in any well-established system, good ideas are well received and implemented because lawyers are willing to make changes that better serve their clients and the legal system.